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More than 80 new and recent nonfiction features screen at this well-respected Montreal event

XALKO

Thirteen titles vie for recognition in the Canadian Featryre Competition, including: Thierry Loa’s 20-22 OMEGA, a music-driven look at mankind’s impact on our world; Nadine Gomez’s EXARCHEIA, LE CHANT DES OISEAUX, an immersion into the Athens neighborhood that’s become a refuge for migrants; Sami Mermer and Hind Benchekroun’s XALKO, a personal reflection on a small Kurdish village whose men have migrated away; Julien Elie’s DARK SUNS, which looks at the continuing legacy of unpunished femicides in Mexico; and Dan Popa’s SYMPHONY IN AQUAMARINE, an essay about people who live or work near the ocean.

THE IMAGE YOU MISSED

The fest’s International Feature Competition includes a dozen titles, among them: Kristina Konrad’s UNAS PREGUNTAS, a look back at how Uruguay responded to an amnesty proposal for its military leaders 30 years ago; Zhang Mengqi’s SELF-PORTRAIT: SPHINX IN 47 KM, a meditation on the disappearance of rural China due to economic migration; Donal Foreman’s THE IMAGE YOU MISSED, a personal reflection on the filmmaker’s late father, a filmmaker himself; Salomé Lamas’ EXTINCTION, a hybrid exploring questions around national identity, centered around the unrecognized state of Transnistria.

ZAGROS

Work appearing in the fest’s Midlength Competitions includes: Shehrezad Maher’s THIS SHAKING KEEPS ME STEADY, a hybrid exploring memory and trauma in Pakistan; Toni Geitani’s THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GOYA, an exploration of Lebanon’s conflict-ridden past; and Shahab Mihandoust and Ariane Lorrain’s ZAGROS, a look at the vanishing art of carpet weaving in the mountains of Iran.

A DELICATE BALANCE

Non-competitive strands include La Bête Humaine, with Giorgio Ferrero and Federico Biasin’s BEAUTIFUL THINGS, an exploration of people and the objects of their consumption; Christine Chevarie-Lessard’s A DELICATE BALANCE, an inside look at a ballet school; and Joseph Hillel’s CITY DREAMERS, which profiles unheralded female architects; The State of the World, which offers Jonathan Durand’s MEMORY IS OUR HOMELAND, a personal exploration of what happened to Poles who were exiled to Africa after spending WWII in Siberian labor camps; and Julien Fréchette’s MY WAR, about Westerners who have joined the Kurdish defense forces; Portraits, with films like Søren Steen Jespersen and Nasib Farah’s LOST WARRIOR, about a young British Muslim couple who become involved with Al-Shabaab; and ARTifice, with Jean-Nicolas Orhon’s ENSEMBLE, an observational portrait of a Montreal orchestra.